Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop

Tactical Agriculture (TAg) Train the Trainer Workshop

Summary

We have designed a workshop that will teach extension educators in the Northeast to use a proven educational design called Tactical Agriculture (TAg). While most extension educators conduct in-field workshops to disseminate current information and strategies relative to integrated crop management (ICM) and integrated pest management (IPM) to producers, most educators do not design programs in such a way as to maximize advantages of sound educational design for adult learners. The TAg program is grounded in educational research and design. The TAg program specifically is an experiential, hands-on season-long training program for small groups of field crop producers in local areas. The TAg program has been used successfully in New York State to teach producers to better manage field crops, protect the environment, reduce health risks, and enhance their own long-term viability by implementing specific targeted IPM and ICM practices. Producers are actively integrated into the growing-season-long educational program, which focuses on the collection of data from their fields in conjunction with meetings to discuss critical pest and crop management issues that arise during the growing season. The program has had remarkable success in encouraging participants to adopt IPM and ICM strategies. Impacts of the program are measured by pre- and post-testing of subject matter and an exit survey to determine the percentage of adoption of IPM and ICM practices taught to producers. We plan to target extension educators in the Northeast and host a 2 day workshop on design, teaching, and evaluating an effective TAg program. This workshop will be held on February 1 and 2, 2007 at the Desmond Inn in Albany, NY. Currently we have 15 participants registered for the workshop.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Forty educators will be identified as potential beneficiaries of a workshop designed to train educators to use an innovative IPM educational program. Of these 40 targeted educators, 20 will participate in the workshop. From this group, 10 extension educators will successfully design and administer at least one TAg program during the year after the completion of the training workshop. As a result, 40 to 80 producers will be reached with the TAg program during the year following the training workshop.

We will design a program to train extension educators and other professional agriculture educators in the Northeast US to design and implement Tactical Agriculture, or TAg, programs in their county, region or state. This project involves identifying educators who seek innovative educational opportunities for IPM programming. Recruitment of these individuals will begin with communications with state IPM coordinators across the Northeast. Experts in adult agricultural education will be identified as instructors, and they will work directly with members of NYS IPM who use the innovative TAg program to design a curriculum for training educators to use a TAg program. Workshop participants who implement a TAg program will report back to the workshop trainers to indicate the usefulness of the program in their setting, improvements needed, and behavior changes that take place with targeted producers.

Accomplishments/Milestones

We have organized a TAg workshop targeting extension educators and other selected agriculture educators in the northeastern US that will be held on February 1 and 2 at the Desmond Inn in Albany, NY. Currently we have 15 extension educators and other professional agricultural educators registered for the workshop. We have an excellent lineup of speakers and workshop agenda planned:

Speaker List:
Mike Duttweiler: Cornell University-Assistant Director, Program and Professional Development

Julie Dennis: Western NYS Area IPM Educator- Field Crops and Livestock-Cornell University

Keith Waldron-NYS IPM Livestock and Field Crops IPM Coordinator-Cornell University

Jeff Miller –Field Crops Extension Educator-Oneida County

Mike Stanyard Ph.D.- Field Crops Specialist & Team Leader- NWNY Dairy, Livestock, & Field Crops Team-Cornell University

Steve Hadcock-Extension Educator Columbia County-Cornell University

Ken Wise Eastern NYS Area IPM Educator-Field Crops and Livestock-Cornell University

Agenda:
8:30 AM: Welcome and Introductions
-What we learned from the pre-survey-Ken Wise
-Overview of TAg-Julie Dennis-
-History of TAg-Keith Waldron-

9:30 AM: How to Get Started with TAg
-Getting in Touch with your Teaching Philosophy-Steve Hadcock-
-Assessing Needs and Writing Program Objectives-Ken Wise

11:00 AM: Curriculum Development
-Teaching Modules “Structuring the Content”-Keith Waldron
-Designing your own teaching Modules – Julie Dennis

1:00 PM: Educational Design and Teaching
-Teaching Farmers-TAg Style- Ken Wise
-Effective Learning Groups Don’t Just Happen-Mike Duttweiler
-Map Out your TAg program- Ken Wise- Eastern NYS Area IPM Educator-Cornell University

2:30 PM: TAg Programs in Real Time
-IPM TAg Teams: Oneida County Perspective-Jeff Miller
-My Experiences with the TAg Program in NWNY-Mike Stanyard
-New TAg Program from Bottom to Top! Julie Dennis

4:00 PM : Odds and Ends
-Review, Homework and Coming Attractions-Ken Wise

February 2:
8:00 AM: Time to Wakeup!
-Coffee, Tea and Food!
-Yesterday/homework review

8:30 AM: Evaluation and Impacts
-Evaluation of a TAg Program: What’s it good for? Mike Duttweiler Cornell University-Assistant Director, Program and Professional Development
-TAg Program impact: Statewide IPM Adoption Survey Highlights-Keith Waldron

10:15 AM: Pulling it Together
Designing your local TAg program: Julie Dennis and Ken Wise

11:00 AM: Implementation
-Where the Tire Meets the Road- Stephen Hadcock
-Ends of Workshop and Plans for the Future-Ken Wise
11:35 AM: Workshop Evaluations
-Evaluation-How did the workshop go?
-Post-Questionnaire on the effectiveness of the workshop

At the completion of the workshop, participants will be surveyed on the quality of the program and to document their intentions to plan and implement a TAg type program in their county, region or state. At the completion of the growing season following the workshop, each participant offering a TAg program will prepare a 2 page report on their impacts with their clientele. Workshop participants who implement a TAg program will serve to help to improve and promote the TAg philosophy, implementation, communication and networking in the northeast US.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

We have not yet measured impacts.

Collaborators: